Voting, Power, and Being the Church
The High School Sunday School class that I lead has been working through a series on Faith and Politics in the lead-up to and, now, fallout from the recent election. A few weeks ago, the class session was focused on exploring the differences and tensions between the “Kin(g)dom of God”…
A Mentor Mindset
I recently picked up a copy of David Yeager’s book, 10 to 25: The Science of Motivating Young People after reading a review that piqued my interest. The sub-sub-title of the book is “A Groundbreaking Approach to Leading the Next Generation–And Making Your Own Life Easier.” I’m fairly skeptical of…
Ten Highlights
Ten Highlights I’m still glowing a bit from the very generous, meaningful, and tasty celebration you all threw for me a few weeks ago to mark my tenth year anniversary with CMC. Every job will have its ups and downs, but it truly has been an overwhelmingly positive experience for…
All the Feels (Part 2)
Last Sunday Joel made a very brief reference in his sermon to the recently released movie, Inside Out 2 as a way to illustrate that you could take in the second part of something (his two-part sermon) without the first, but you’d probably be missing out on some things. When…
Building the Kin-Dom
Last week, I had the opportunity to help chaperone a group of four of CMC’s high school boys on a service-learning trip through Appalachia Build (formerly known as SWAP). We spent the week in Kimball, West Virginia building a deck with a ramp for a household that included a young…
Listening for Wisdom
Last Saturday I gathered on Zoom with Mennonites from across our conference for our annual mid-year gathering. These gatherings used to happen in person across a few different weekends to accommodate the wide geography of the Central District Conference, but have moved solely online the last few years. This means…
Midweek Blog: Out of Nowhere?
If you were in worship last Sunday, you heard me share that we will have a record number of young people attending the Winter Camps at Camp Friedenswald the next two weekends. At last count, we will have 10 High Schoolers and 12 Middle Schoolers attending their respective weekends. That’s…
Creative Cries
Many of you expressed kind words last Sunday about the lyrics I wrote for our Advent theme, which we will be singing to the tune of What Child is This? There are more verses coming each week, which I’ll include below. For now I wanted to give a little more…
Spooky Season
I hope you all had a happy Halloween, a blessed All Saints Day, and are enjoying a beautifully sunny All Souls Day. Or perhaps you celebrated Dia de los Muertos. Or maybe you know these holy days as Samhain. Regardless, I hope these days of transition from Fall to Winter…
Blessing (of) the Animals
Today is the Feast Day of Saint Francis. Mennonites don’t generally do a lot with traditional saints or feast days, but I know Saint Francis holds a special place in many of our hearts because of his connection with Creation and the natural world. There are many different stories and…
